Burger King Brought Back The Famous Subservient Chicken — With A Twist

The Subservient Chicken went from a national phenomenon
to working children's birthday parties.YouTube/Burger King

Burger King's "Subservient Chicken" was one of the web's first
big viral marketing campaigns.

Created in 2004 by the ad agencies CP+B and the Barbarian Group,
the campaign allowed people to visit a website,
subservientchicken.com, that hosted what appeared to be a live
video feed of a man in a chicken suit sitting in a living room.

When people typed in a command, e.g. "do jumping jacks," the man
in the chicken suit
would act out what he was told via one of more than 400
pre-recorded actions. At the time, the promotion was totally
revolutionary, and the site spread like wildfire to get 20
million hits in its first week.

But in the intervening decade, the Subservient Chicken has faced
hard times. At least that's the story in a 4-minute documentary
Burger King made to re-introduce the mascot in support of its new
Chicken Big King sandwich, which is sort of like a Big Mac
but with fried chicken patties instead of beef.

In the video, above, we see the Subservient Chicken's life go to
ruin after his 15 minutes of fame come to end. He goes from being
booked on national television to being jeered at children's
birthday parties and participating in a bizarre human
cock-fighting event.

YouTube/Burger
King

The Chicken ultimately goes to jail after being caught buying
alcohol for teenagers.YouTube/Burger
King

But a boxing trainer finds him begging for work on the side of
the street.YouTube/Burger
King

And whips him back into shape.YouTube/Burger
King

The "documentary" ends with a leaner, meaner Subservient Chicken
shooting an ad for the new Chicken Big King. But when it's his
turn to appear on stage, he decides that after a decade of
subservience, he's done doing what he's told.